Oscar Broneer - Biography

Biography

Broneer left Sweden in 1913 for the United States. He studied at Augustana College and then attended the University of California, Berkeley. It took Broneer only two years at Berkeley to earn both an M.A. and Ph.D. Afterwards, he taught at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and worked for years at the Corinth Excavations, where he excavated, studied, and published the South Stoa and the odeum. He returned to an impoverished Greece immediately after World War II as a member of the Red Cross. While working at Corinth he also developed the first systematic typology of ancient terracotta lamps. In 1952, Broneer famously discovered the temple of Poseidon at Isthmia on the very first day of the excavation. Broneer became the field director at Isthmia in 1952 and remained in charge until 1967. He published several books in his career. In 1962, the Greek government honored him with the honorary command of the Royal Hellenic Order of the Phoenix. He received the Gold Medal of the Archaeological Institute of America in 1969. His full bibliography can be found in Hesperia 43 (1974). He was buried in Hagia Anna cemetery, Ancient Corinth, Greece beside his first wife, Verna Anderson, who died in 1948.